The hon. Gentleman is shaking his head, so it must be true. We would then be able to resolve the issue of the college places that have been lost.
Amendment 114 would provide for the devolution of the Access to Work scheme to the Scottish Parliament. Access to Work provides practical advice and support
to disabled people, and their employers, to help them to overcome work-related obstacles resulting from disability. It is an incredibly powerful and important programme. A close friend of mine, Mark Cooper, who has cerebral palsy, has been on it for some time. He took a job that covered maternity leave in Glasgow, 45 miles away, and was able to work with the employer and the programme to travel to Glasgow and secure an adapted workplace.
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None the less, Mark drifts in and out of employment because of his disability. The obstacles facing people with disabilities have to be overcome, and the devolution of the programme to local authorities would certainly allow it to be better tailored to local needs. Access to work is closely aligned with employment support, and several charities, including Inclusion Scotland and the Wise Group, are in favour of its devolution to Scotland.
Finally, amendment 10 would allow for the introduction of a jobs guarantee providing a temporary job paying at least the minimum wage to provide a route back into employment for young people or people who have been out of work for more than two years. It is similar to the jobs guarantee in our manifesto at the general election, and would allow us to devolve some of the responsibilities for getting young people back into long-term employment. Again, local authorities would be best placed to deliver that, despite the fact that the hon. Member for Angus thinks it a bad idea.
I hope the Government will reflect on some of these issues, as the Secretary of State said he would do, and, if they disagree to them today, come back on Report not just with the proper devolution of employment, disability and access to work schemes to the Scottish Parliament but with mechanisms to get them out of the hands of Edinburgh and into those of local authorities.